










/&■ • 




O. • • . o .0 








|4* 



^U .ft* . l '»* ^c 



V 




SPEECH 



BEFORE AN AUXILIARY OF THE 



AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 



Utica, January 13, 1834. 



BY A. B. JOHNSON. 



PRESS OF WILLIAM WILLIAMS, 

UTICA. 



H V 3 *~3 



4 6 



7 







TO THE READER. 

Contrary to his original expectation and present wishes, the author of 
the following remarks is impelled to publish them, both by the request of 
many persons, and the greater urgency of avoiding misconception. Having 
never been a member of any society for either abolition or colonization, and 
intending never to be of either, he simply means to enjoy, on these sub- 
jects, the independence of thought and action which the laws and his cir- 
cumstances in life enable him to maintain. Anxious, however, to respect 
the feelings of every human being, he would have presented his views with 
less pungency of illustration, had not the terms of debate precluded ampli- 
fication, by limiting every speech to thirty minutes. Yet no offence he 
trusts can be justly excited by any of his remarks, if the reader will remem- 
ber that guilt exists in intention alone. Any act, even the death of an indi- 
vidual, is either virtuous or criminal, according as the intention of trie 
actor is virtuous or vicious. The most skilful physician that exists has 
doubtless caused the death of many persons, when he deemed himself 
engaged in the most benign acts of mercy. If, however, you can show a 
physician that his prescriptions are deleterious, you may fairly denounce 
the medicine, without criminating the physician. Having, then, in the 
following remarks, both at their commencement and conclusion, disclaimed 
all imputation against the motives of the Colonization Society and its sup- 
porters, (and to act differently would be insanity,) the author trusts that the 
reader will constantly discriminate that the remarks are intended to illus- 
trate the speaker's views of the moral tendency and character of the acts 
of the Colonization Society, and hence cannot detract from the highly mer- 
itorious intentions with which those acts are performed. 



RESOLUTION. 

«> Resolved, That this meeting deeply deplore the unfortunate condition 
of the colored population of this country ; and commend to the zealous 
support of the philanthropist and the Christian, the American Colonization 
Society, as the instrument, under Providence, which is best calculated to 
ameliorate the condition of the free negro, and secure the ultimate eman- 
cipation of the slave." 



ADDRESS 



Mr. Chairman : 

As I intend to vote on the resolution which is before this 
meeting, and as I shall vote differently from many of my friends 
who are present, I perhaps owe to them, and I owe to myself, 
to state some of the reasons that will influence me in the vote 
which I shall give. 

I avow the highest respect and esteem for the motives of the 
Colonization Society and its supporters. I doubt not they 
deem themselves engaged in the most effectual methods of 
benefiting colored men, of Christianizing and civilizing Africa, 
and of strengthening the interests and institutions of our coun- 
try. Nay, the intelligence and patriotism which are united 
under the banners of the Society, constitute the most formida- 
ble difficulties in the cause which I am to advocate. Even on 
this floor we find among its friends those to whom we look for 
the exemplification of every virtue; especially am I constrained 
to notice one, whose honest zeal in this cause is but an emana- 
tion of the zeal which often delights me, as I occasionally hear 
him, vehement in the cause of righteousness, in the sacred 
desk. Still, I am bound either to forego all the dictates of 
my judgment, or to declare that I believe the Society and its 
supporters are mistaken as to the moral nature of their insti- 
tution. 



The Society proceeds on the assumption that it will colonize 
free people of color with their own assent. This alone recon- 
ciles community to the proceedings of the Society. Still, in 
this fundamental feature, the proceedings of the Society are 
based on a fallacy. 

In some countries of Europe no criminal can be executed 
unless by his own consent; that is, he must confess himself 
guilty. Without this confession, the most positive testimony is 
insufficient to convict him. This provision, so theoretically 
strong in favor of prisoners, is practically the means in many 
cases of condemning the innocent. The process consists in 
applying tortures to a suspected person until he shall confess 
himself guilty. 

To my apprehension, the confession of guilt, thus extorted, is 
analogous to the assent of colored men to be transported to 
Liberia. We apply to their minds a torture which is as effect- 
ive in compelling a consent to be transported to Africa, as phy- 
sical tortures are effective in compelling a consent to be exe- 
cuted. 

The degradations which beset the colored man are ever pre- 
sent. He cannot enter a church, a canal-boat, a tavern, a 
steam-boat, without being consigned, regardless of all his 
merits, be they perchance ever so great, to the most degraded 
position. He is practically excluded from every post of honor 
and profit which usually stimulate other men to virtue and 
industry. Who ever heard of a black juryman, a black law- 
yer, a black judge, a black physician? What merchant will 
take a black shopman? what mechanic a black apprentice? 
In the absence of all stimulants which excite white men to 
honor, 1 am surprised at the decency, (be it ever so little,) that 
colored people exhibit, of even this state. Were they as open 
in their sensuality as the beasts of our fields, I could not accuse 
them with their excesses; for the principle, "Eat, drink, and 
be merry ; for to-morrow we die," is unmitigatingly applicable 
to their condition. Were they more idle than they confessedly 
are, more reckless of consequences, more regardless of reputa- 



tion, and every way worthless, I could not upbraid them with 
these miserable attributes. I can see in my own bosom a suf- 
ficient reason for their depravity, in the treatment which they 
receive at our hands. 

Far be from me any accusation against my white fellow citi- 
zens. I am stating facts of which I may be as guilty as any 
other man. I merely show that men thus situated are as 
effectually coerced to yield their assent to transportation, as 
the poor wretch on the wheel of torture yields his assent to be 
executed. Believing this, I say we act fallaciously when we 
soothe our consciences towards African colonization, by say- 
ing that we colonize none but those who assent to be trans- 
ported. 

This is not the only fallacy which is connected with the 
colonization cause. We further soothe our consciences in 
sending the blacks to Africa, by saying that though the whites, 
whom we have sent as missionaries and officers, die with ter- 
rific rapidity, yet the blacks, being indigenous to the climate, 
enjoy a greater immunity from disease than the whites. This 
position I deny. Exemption from the diseases of climate is 
not inheritable. It is a personal privilege, which attaches to 
those alone who are born in the climate, and which is forfeited 
by a removal from the climate. 

Are we not told that emigrants from the south suffer less 
from the climate than emigrants from the north? Is not this 
alone sufficient proof that the climate regards not where the 
emigrant's ancestors were born, but simply where the emigrant 
himself was nurtured? 

I entertain another objection to the Colonization Society. 
No principle is clearer to my mind than that God's command- 
ments include equally white men and black. " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself" is as obligatory on us in relation 
to colored men, as the command, " Thou shalt do no murder." 
If the last forbids us to kill a black man, the former commands 
us to love a black man as we love a white. If either is appli- 
cable to a black man, both are. 



Like the reverend gentleman who addressed as on Thursday 
evening, on behalf of colonization, 1 am fond of reverting to 
these elements of duty. Some persons may think they possess 
no connexion with the question, but I deem them important. 
'Christianity lias so moulded our views of right and wrong, of 
virtue and vice, that we can in no way so effectually settle the 
morality of any question, as by ascertaining its religious charac- 
ter. Many men think that their conduct is uninfluenced by 
the Bible, and independent of it; but they are mistaken. A 
man may doubt whether he shall be judged by the Bible in 
the world to come; but he is a superficial observer, if he disco- 
ver not that in this life at least he is judged by the Bible. His 
acts must be regulated by it, to a degree at least, if he would 
not be an outcast from society. 

Females are told, and correctly, of the peculiar obligations of 
their sex to the Christian religion. I believe the blacks may 
be told with equal propriety of their obligations to Christianity. 
Of all men they should the most revere religion. We heard, 
on Thursday night, that in Rome four hundred slaves were 
massacred, because their master had been murdered, and the 
murderer, who was supposed to be one of the slaves, could not 
be discovered. This butchery was said to be the regular law 
of that civilized empire. Whether this was before Christian- 
ity, or subsequently, we are not informed ; but it could but 
have been in the infancy of the Christian era. What, think 
you, prevents similar outrages now? Is it our humanity? Pos- 
sibly; but it is our humanity as formed and modified by our 
religion. The blacks are indebted to Christianity for even the 
trouble and expense that are taken to remove them to Africa. 
Were we like the Romans, or rather like the Spartans, to 
whom we were also referred, we should probably like them 
find a far less expensive and more expeditious way of removing 
our blacks, than the slow process of colonization. 

Religion, then, effects much for the blacks ; and it may effect 
more, till they shall enjoy all the benefits which result from an 
entire conformity of our conduct with Christian principles. 



" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." If this command 
be applicable to our conduct towards colored men as fully as 
to our conduct towards white men, and if Christianity be an 
authoritative reality, this single command involves the whole 
merits of our controversy. Now I call on the clergy who are 
present, to tell me if this command is not intended to embrace 
our conduct towards the blacks? I call on them to answer 
this question distinctly. 

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Is this a com- 
mand which expediency can annul? If expediency can annul 
this command, expediency can annul the Sabbath, expediency 
can annul the decalogue, expediency can annul the Bible itself, 
and Christianity with it. 1 call on clergymen to maintain such 
a doctrine if they dare, either openly or covertly, either by pre- 
cept or practice, either by inference or by consequence. They 
may as well preach deism, as that our conduct towards the 
blacks is not sinful. 

If, then, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is autho- 
ritative over our conduct towards the blacks, I object to the 
Colonization Society that it is an instrument and means by 
which our violation of the above command is gratified. The 
Society removes the blacks to Africa, because we insist on vio- 
lating this command. The Society thus, like a brothel, makes 
itself subservient to the sin of the community. 

Is a society with such an object to be fostered by our 
churches? Is it to be taken under the special care of our 
clergy? Is it to be the theme of their eulogy on the Sabbath, 
and the object of their prayers at any time? No. If such a 
society must exist, let the clergy keep aloof from it. Let them 
enforce on the consciences of men the law of God, which, 
when obeyed, will render the Society useless, rather than 
enforce on the feeble and debased blacks that God's law can- 
not be obeyed, and that their only refuge is this Society. 

In all ordinary cases of hatred between man and man, that 
is, when the parties are white men, our ministers will not lend 
themselves to gratify the prejudices of one party, by transport- 



10 

ing from his home and country the injured individual ; our 
ministers will fearlessly go to the persecutor, or send to him 
their session, or other ecclesiastical coadjutors, and tell the 
offender that he must repent, or expect no fellowship in this 
world, and no forgiveness in the next. These opposite courses 
of conduct to the black man and the white cannot both be 
right ; and I call on our clergy to beware lest they give infidel- 
ity occasion to infer from their practice that they disbelieve 
their own precepts. 

I admit that, at present, as we have been exultingly told, all 
the ecclesiastical authorities of our country are with this Soci- 
ety, and nearly all the Christian ministry. They are but men;, 
and the missionary aspect of the Society has blinded them to 
its real character. They are in this particular like Ambrosio, 
the saint of Madrid, who was seduced by a demon, under the 
semblance of the Virgin Mother. Nothing but the missionary 
character of the Colonization Society has enabled it for a 
moment to sustain itself with Christians; and in this particular 
they have yet to learn, and they are fast learning, that they are 
violating the injunction which prohibits them from effecting 
good by means that are evil. 

By the sufferance of this meeting, the resolution before us is 
discussed as though it presented for our decision the relative 
merits of colonization to Africa, and immediate, universal 
emancipation. The question limits us to no such alternative. 
It presents no such issue. Nefarious, however, and incen- 
diary, as many persons deem the theory of immediate emanci- 
pation, yet so indefensible on any principles is the Colonization 
Society, that I am willing it shall be tried on that issue, pre- 
judged as it probably is by passion, and misapprehended as I 
suppose it to be by prejudice. Leaving ihen for the present 
the Colonization Society, I will say a few words on the theory 
of immediate emancipation. 

All that is meant by immediate emancipation, is simply the 
assertion of a duty : Duty requires that all men shall emanci- 
pate their slaves immediately. Emancipation is a duty which 



11 

they owe to the slave, to Christianity, to the character of then- 
country. I mean to assert no right of compelling the slave 
holder to emancipate his slave ; but merely to assert the right 
of canvassing wherein duty lies, and the right of creating a 
public opinion, which shall make slave holding appear in all 
the sinfulness with which Christianity has invested it. We 
need not therefore fear that our efforts will produce disunion ; 
for we rely on nothing for the emancipation of slaves, but the 
voluntary acts of slave holders themselves. We rely on nothing 
but what will be as operative, should the Union be severed, as 
it is at present. Truth and opinion circulate and ramify with- 
out being indebted to any constitutional license, nor can they 
be arrested by any constitutional disruption. 

I yield to no man in devotion to the Union. 1 yield to no 
man in love to our southern fellow citizens. I admire the chi- 
valrous south. Slavery itself has produced an exaltation in the 
character of southern men, by the conscious dignity which free- 
dom must ever feel in the presence of slaves. Had I the power 
to make slave holding appear to them so sinful as to cause them 
to liberate their slaves, I should feel by its exercise more exalted 
than Napoleon ; but had 1 the physical power to compel them 
to relinquish their slaves, I would rather die than exert it. To 
persuade them is a duty; to coerce them is a crime. Such, at 
least, are my understanding of the principles of abolitionists; 
and in these principles I see no cause for alarm at the north, 
no cause for offence at the south. I will not even adopt the 
suggestion made the other night by the agent* of the American 
Colonization Society, and petition Congress to suppress slavery 
in the district of Columbia. I want not the sword of the law, 
but the peaceful and more potent sword of the Spirit, operating 
on the hearts of slave holders themselves. Could we force 
emancipation on the south, we should but remove slavery from 
the southern blacks, to place it on the southern whites; for 
what I pray you is slavery, but to be compelled to act contrary 
to our own volitions? Could we force emancipation on the 

* Rev. J. N. Danforth, General Agent of the Society. 



12 



south, we should ourselves be slave holders, and our white 
brethren at the south would be our slaves. X never have 
invoked the laws of man to enforce the laws of God, and I 
never will. The laws of God are never so potent as when 
they stand uncontarninated and unsupported by the passions 
that forever mix with our legislative support of them. We are 
most unjust to Christianity, if we deem it unable to conquer 
slavery. It has vanquished, even at the south, an enemy, in 
comparison with which, slavery is but a pigmy to a giant. If 
Christianity is able to maintain in total celibacy a large body 
of men and women in the most voluptuous parts of Europe; if 
it has been able to abolish throughout Christendom polygamy 
and concubinage, we need not fear the result, in its encounter 
with slavery. 

But we are told that our views can never influence the 
south ; that slave holders cannot hear us ; and if they could 
hear, they would disregard our opinion. 1 believe experience 
will not justify these assertions. Within a few years the slave 
system has been greatly meliorated. Formerly, in some slave 
holding states, the murder of a slave was a slight offence, sub- 
jecting the offender to only a pecuniary penalty ; while now it 
is statutably punishable with death. The slaves are also better 
fed and better clothed than formerly. These improvements 
were concessions to the public opinion of the north. Indeed, 
we must wholly mistake human nature, if we believe that 
southern men are insensible to the opinion which we form of 
their conduct; and most especially we must mistake the south- 
ern character. Of all the inhabitants of our continent, I should 
select southern men as the most sensitive to the breath of either 
approbation or censure, blow from what nook of the globe it 
may. Their sensitiveness is all that can make northern dis- 
cussion of slavery injudicious. Fretted, as they probably are, 
between the embarrassments that practically attend any dis- 
ruption of the ties of slavery, and the desire to free themselves 
from the consequences that attend the retention of slavery, 
(and among these consequences the public odium of the north 



13 

is not the least pressing,) they probably deem our discussions 
as unkind and unnecessary, as we deem them beneficial, ulti- 
mately, to even the south itself. 

A gentleman the other night told us of a Carolinian, 1 
believe, who became possessed of ten slaves. His conscience 
would not permit him to retain them in slavery, and he gave 
them their liberty. I could not see why this instance was 
adduced by an opponent of immediate emancipation. To me 
it is a powerful proof that the duty of immediate emancipation 
is already responded to by the consciences of slave holders, and 
that we possess great encouragement to persevere in preaching 
the doctrine loud and long. 

But this benevolent slave holder was not content with man- 
umitting his slaves ; he sent them to Liberia. Here the history 
of this transaction ended. I wish it had been extended a little 
farther. I want another chapter. The finale would be more 
pertinent than all the rest to the real object of our discussion — 
the merits of the Colonization Society. T wish to discover what 
influence the Colonization Society exerted in this transaction. 
Did it enable this conscience stricken individual to relieve him- 
self by something short of unconditional manumission ; by com- 
muting the pains of slavery to transportation for life to Liberia? 
I should also like to see the full measure of gratitude which 
these slaves owe to this Society, for enabling their master to 
satisfy his conscience by exiling them to Africa. How were the 
bodies of these ten human beings, men, women, and infants, 
prepared for the fearful disease which they were all to encoun- 
ter in what is termed the seasoning? How many of these per- 
ished a miserable death amid strangers and pestilence? And 
how many that escaped the slaughter were found missing in 
the flight? for missing seems to be a term of some significance 
in the fearful records of colonization. Possibly this benevolent 
slave holder, (how thankful soever he may now feel to this 
Society,) may, at the day of final account, discover, that in this 
act of vaunted mercy and benevolence, and in this act of dis- 
burdening his conscience, he became a murderer. 



14 

1 am constrained to say here, that I differ essentially from 
some respected individuals who the other night expressed a 
belief that the Colonization Society and the emancipationists 
are both right. I admit that the emancipationists may fail in 
effecting their object ; but 1 deny that the Colonization Society 
is worthy of patronage, whether it fail in its objects, or effect 
them. It is based on a violation of Christian duty, as I have 
endeavored to show ; and hence, whatever may be the results 
which it can accomplish, I cordially and unconditionally decline 
its fellowship and affinity. Sooner would I cast a thousand 
dollars into the ocean, than cast a dollar into the treasury of 
that Society. What the ocean ingulfed would effect no evil, 
though it effected no good ; but what the Colonization Society 
ingulfed might cause the death of a fellow being. These sen- 
timents are not the result of heat and debate, but the cool and 
deliberate dictates of my judgment, and as long cherished by 
me as the existence of the Colonization Society. Till lately, 
I knew not but I stood alone in these views; but I perceive 
they are becoming common. 

Some gentlemen argue this question as if its merits depended 
on the ability or inability of the Colonization Society to remove 
all the blacks to Africa. I differ from these gentlemen. The 
inability of the Society to perform its objects is all that will 
redeem it from the execration of posterity; precisely as the 
inability of Nero to effect his object, (when he wished that all 
Rome had but one neck, that he might behead the whole race 
at a blow,) is all that redeems his character. Heaven, in its 
kindest mercy, has not made our powers of executing evil equal 
to the enormity of our conceptions. Are we men, are we hus- 
bands, are we fathers, and shall we possess no better motive 
for opposing this Society, than that it cannot yield up to the 
devouring pestilence of Africa — that it cannot crowd into the 
black hole of Calcutta, one sixth part of the whole human race 
that inhabits these states? 

We argue the question as though nothing were to be con- 
sulted but the prejudices, and feelings, and interests of the 



15 

whites. I will never consent to argue it on such a basis. I 
deny that we possess any right thus to argue it, but the right of 
power; and hence, whether the Colonization Society can 
accomplish its objects, has no bearing on the question at issue, 
till we have established that the objects of the Society are con- 
scientious and right. I have endeavored to show that they are 
unconscientious and wrong ; that they trample on that funda- 
mental command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," 
which our Savior deemed of equal dignity with our love to 
God, and which, together, he declared comprehend all religion. 
Christianity and this Society cannot live together. Choose ye 
this night which ye will serve. 

For myself, I deny being a partizan on this question. The 
views which I have uttered are my own ; I have never read a 
paragraph written professedly against the Colonization Society, 
or in favor of emancipation. I have never before spoken on 
this question, and have never canvassed its merits, except in 
the privacy of my own thoughts. Invited by public handbill, 
as we have all been, to discuss the question, I have availed 
myself of the opportunity to speak with the candor that is the 
privilege of freedom. I have already disclaimed all imputa- 
tion against the motives of any man ; and so far from possess- 
ing the slightest hostility to the dignified, able, and I have no 
doubt amiable gentleman, who addressed us on Thursday even- 
ing as the agent of the Colonization Society, I feel no little 
pain, nay, I feel great pain in saying any thing that shall by the 
remotest possibility interfere with his feelings, his views and 
interests. His deportment, his talents, and I may say his 
appearance, excite in me the most kindly prepossessions toward 
him; still, let him not complain, (as I thought he did on Thurs- 
day,) of the sentiments which are uttered against his Society, 
even by a brother in the ministry ;* for, if I am not misinformed, 
this discussion is the offspring of his own invitation ;t and, if I 

* The Rev. Beri ah Green, President of the Oneida Institute, a gentleman whose 
controversial powers seem of a very high order, and who, during several whole 
evenings, spoke for the negative of the question with an animation and pathos that 
absorbed the attention of the whole audience. 

t This assertion was contradicted by the friends of the agent. They said the invi- 



16 

correctly understood him that evening, he deemed opposition 
propitious to his interests. It added, I think he said, many 
thousands to the funds of his Society. In one respect I am 
happy to hear the declaration. I hope none of us shall ever 
find our interests promoted by suppressing discussion. Let 
discussion be ever held dear and sacred. Providence has 
constituted us to differ, and Providence will not permit this fea- 
ture of our nature to be injurious, though we sometimes, in the 
tyranny of selfishness, would suppress its exhibition. 

Look at our national legislature ; and to what but conflict- 
ing opinion are we indebted for the exaltation that we discover. 
Men, who by the mere favor of their neighbors leave home not 
distinguished from the common mass of man, coursing along 
the surface of society like a ripple on the unruffled bosom of the 
ocean, are presently, in their new situation, fretted into a wave; 
and, surging upwards and onwards, by the mighty energy of 
conflicting opinion, bear aloft on their bosom the whole fabric 
of society, and seem to us, who gaze on them from the unmoved 
surface of the world, like beings whom we can scarcely recog- 
nize as our fellows. 

Let us then not complain of a principle thus productive of 
good, but rather let us tolerate each other's views ; and while 
I solicit this most humbly for the vote which conscience com- 
pels me to give on this occasion, I am anxious to declare that 
I shall respect no man the less for finding him diametrically 
and ardently opposed to me in his conclusions. 



Note. — A gentleman who was present at the delivery of the preceding 
remarks, has called on the speaker to review the declarations which treat 
disparagingly the virtue and attainments of colored men. The speaker 
never asserted that they are naturally inferior to other men, nor is he 
possessed of any reasons or feelings for such an assertion. The pic- 
ture which he drew of colored men conforms to the limited acquaintance 
with them that his secluded habits have afforded. That even this country 
(with its discouraging prejudices,) possesses colored men of virtue, wealth, 
and literature, he is happy to possess this gentleman's assertion for believ- 
ing ; and the more of such instances are substantiated, the greater will be 
his gratification. 

tation came from some friends of vhe Colonization cause, and was merely acquiesced 
in by the a^cnl. 



54 w 







& ^ o 



















































5? vK •: 













» • » <■ r ^i* 



#++>. v 




^d* 



°o 
















->■«• 














0° .♦, 





A>*^ 

«T* AT 'O. 




Sp, ^° \v^/V .♦***&**. 



